Alinta avoids collapse with recapitalisation plan, Shares higher after Wall Street jump: Economy Roundup

Electricity group Alinta has reached a new deal to sell assets into a new company owned by its lenders as part of a recapitalisation plan. In a statement, the company said it had “reached an understanding” with lenders.

The new plan will see all debt owned by Alinta Finance discharged in exchange for operating assets, save the Redbank and Oakey power stations.

“The parties have determined to work constructively together to implement a proposed sale of Alinta Group assets to a new company owned by the syndicate lenders as an alternative to accepting a trade bid,” the company said in a statement.

“Security holders will be asked to destaple the Alinta Energy Ltd (AEL) shares from the Alinta Energy Trust (AET) units and an Alinta subsidiary will offer to acquire all security holders’ AET units for 10 cents per unit.”

Also in the energy sector, New Hope Corporation has announced a net profit of $183.8 million, representing a 91% decline from last year’s result of $1.95 billion.

The company said in a statement it had a non-recurring profit after tax of the sale of New Saraji coal assets of $1.7 billion.

“New Hope’s expansion plans remain on schedule and within budget with the company targeting a modest increase in coal production for 2011 of six million tonnes, subject to available rail capacity,” chairman Robert Millner said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Premier Investments, the holding company for several clothing brands including Just Jeans, Portmans and Peter Alexander, has said its full year net profit decreased by 3.8% to $79.63 million.

“Although Premier remains cautious about the broader macroeconomic environment, Just Groups current trading is in line with expectations,” the company said in a statement, noting the harsh retail conditions.

Australian sharemarket higher on Wall Street lead

The Australian share market has opened higher this morning following a solid lead on Wall Street where investors grew optimistic after positive corporate data was released.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 14.25 points or 0.31% to 4645.6 at 12.15 AEST, while the Australian dollar also grew to US94.75c

Commonwealth Bank shares gained 0.6% to $52.91, while NAB shares also rose 0.4% to $25.96. Westpac rose 0.3% to $23.51 as ANZ rose 0.3% to $24.02.

As reported by Reuters, ANZ will continue its expansion in China and will open 20 outlets in the country over the next three years.

The company said in a statement its ANZ China unit will be established on 1 October, having obtained regulatory approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Overseas, BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers visited Canada on Monday but did not win support of the Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall regarding the deal, with the politician saying he still has concerns about the proposal.

“We’re going to be very careful and deliberate about this,” premier Brad Wall told reporters. “As of today, I don’t see how Saskatchewan is better with this deal, or frankly a subsequent deal.”

Report claims US recession ended June 2009

A new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research claims the US recession ended in June 2009, making it the longest downturn since the Great Depression.

The report cites the data used including gross domestic product, employment and personal income figures. The committee writing the report also said it waited to make its decision on the most recent recession because it wanted to review revised data on national income.

“The basis for this decision was the length and strength of the recovery to date,” the NBER said.

On Wall Street, investors grew optimistic after a number of private companies released solid financial data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 145.77 points or 1.37% to 10,753.62.